The Delta Gamma fraternity council said it would be closing the Epsilon Pi sorority chapter at the University of Connecticut following the death of a member of the sorority was struck by a fire department vehicle in October as she was returning home from a fraternity party.
In February, six members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity -- Patrick Callahan, Matthew Moll, Austin Custodio, Dominic Godi, Dylan Morose and Jonathan Polansky -- were arrested and charged with various counts, including permitting a minor to illegally possess alcohol and sale or delivery to minors.
On Monday, the fraternity announced that the UConn chapter of the sorority will close, only weeks after these arrests.
"New information discovered during a recently university investigation into an unregistered event, coupled with repeated policy violations over the last several years, led Council to the decision to close the chapter indefinitely," Delta Gamma wrote in a statement.
Jeffny Pally, 19, of West Hartford, was coming home from a fraternity party early on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 16 and sat on the ground with her back against a garage bay door at the UConn Public Safety Complex at 126 North Eagleville Road in Storrs when the fire department received a call for service around 1:15 a.m., according to police.
When the bay door Pally was leaning against opened, she fell back onto the ground and a fire department Chevy Tahoe leaving the bay drove over Pally, according to police. Crews from the fire department found Pally around an hour and a half later, when they returned from that call and state police said they were called at 2:48 a.m.
Officials from the medical examiner's office determined she died of blunt injuries to her torso and head and classified her death as an accident.
As police investigated, they learned that the fraternity and sorority got together to build a float for the homecoming parade and then there was an off-campus party where alcohol was provided, according to court documents.
“The tragic death of a new member greatly affected Delta Gamma Fraternity and caused Council to reflect on the member experience at Epsilon Pi,” fraternity president Stacia Rudge Skoog said in a statement. “The decision to close a chapter is never easy, but Council strongly feels itis in the best interest of the chapter and University of Connecticut community.”
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Jeffny was a sophomore majoring in allied health and aspired to be a nurse, according to the university. The 19-year-old worked as a resident assistant and was joining the sorority.
